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The following is extracted from a letter sent to me by 

 J. F. K. Hewitt, Esq., Commissioner, Ohota Nagpore, dated 

 September 20th, 1880. 



" I shall be exceedingly obliged to you for any infor- 

 mation you can give as to the cost of machines for reeling 

 Tusser silk, in order that I may submit a proposition to 

 Government for the introduction of silk reeling as a jail 

 industry, as I thought that if this were proved to be 

 profitable it might give such a stimulus to the cultivation 

 of the Tusser worms as would lead capitalists to lay out 

 the money necessary to make the yield of Tusser from the 

 Highlands of Central India equal to what the country 

 can easily produce with the assistance of capital and 

 organisation. The cost of a machine was a factor necessary 

 to make the system I proposed to Government complete, 

 and I am afraid that in the absence of this information 

 there may be much greater difficulty in having my proposed 

 experiment authorised than there would if I could show 

 clearly the cost on one side of the account and the probable 

 profits on the other. 



"I myself can do nothing in the matter beyond laying 

 before Government the probability that by a very little 

 effort a large quantity of Tusser can be produced in the 

 division under my charge, and the very great likelihood 

 of establishing a trade which will conduce to the permanent 

 increase of the wealth of the country, if means can be 

 found to increase the production of Tusser to meet the 

 present growing demand. I must say, however, that 

 Government can never stimulate a trade so quickly as 

 private capital. A much quicker and more easy solution 

 of the difficulty could be worked out by the large silk- 

 houses if they once determined to turn their earnest 

 attention to the subject. Before Tusser silk can be 

 produced on a scale sufficient to meet a really large 

 demand at all approaching to that for China silk, the 

 methods of the trade must be entirely revolutionised. At 

 present Tusser silk is entirely produced by the aboriginal 

 tribes whose villages lie in the valleys running through 

 the hilly country comprised within the circuits of Bhau- 

 gulpore, Chota Nagpore, and Cuttack divisions in Bengal, 

 the Chuttisghur, Nagpore, and Jubbulpore divisions in 

 Central India, and in the independent state of Rewa. 

 This country includes an area larger than that of France ; 

 and in almost the whole of the hills and forest country, 

 which cover fully three-fifths of its surface, Tusser silk 



